The present invention is directed generally to a hand held portable electronic bingo playing aid and more particularly to the system for playing bingo wherein the content of a plurality of bingo cards is stored in a portable computer which is capable of then identifying and accumulating matches during play of the game and signaling when a winning pattern of accumulated matches has been achieved.
Bingo has been a popular public past time for many years and there are reportedly millions of bingo players in the United States alone. It has been the art of bingo players over the years to develop mental and manual systems to enable playing the game with a greater number of cards. This has been prompted by the fact that a player's chances of winning a given game can be increased in proportion to the number of cards he or she is able to keep track of. The inexperienced player may have to limit himself to two or three cards to keep up with a game and even experienced players have a limit to the number of cards which their mental processes and/or creative systems can keep up with. Elderly players may be limited to playing a small number of cards because of failing eyesight, muscular coordination or slowing down of the mental processes.
Electronic bingo games have previously been proposed wherein individual electronic cards are electrically connected to a master control panel whereby the individual electronic cards display by lights or otherwise the called signals from the control panel. These systems facilitate play of the game but are operative only in establishments where the operator is provided with the necessary control panel and the players have access to a great number of the electronic cards. Since most bingo halls are not so equipped, the practical use of these systems is limited.
Accordingly, there is a need for a portable hand held electronic bingo playing aid which is self-contained and which is operable by a single player to keep track of a plurality of cards in a setting where others may be using manual cards and the numbers are called out in conventional fashion.
A primary object of the invention therefore is to provide an improved electronic bingo playing aid.
Another object is to provide an electronic bingo playing aid which is self-contained and operable independent of any electrical communication with any other devices operated by the game operator or other players.
Another object is to provide an electronic bingo playing aid which enables an individual player to easily play a greater number of cards than he could otherwise keep track of with known mental and manual systems.
Another object is to provide an electronic bingo playing aid which constantly checks for winning patterns of matched letter/number combinations and which immediately alerts the player when a winning pattern has been achieved.
Finally, a further object is to provide an electronic bingo playing aid which is easy to operate and economical to manufacture.